I stared at the hand. It was terrifying. Interacting with low-res avatars was social suicide. If the tabloids got a screenshot of me holding hands with this walking glich-fest, my follower count would tank.
"I can't just leave," I whispered, the pop-star mask slipping. "The concert isn't over. The contract says I have to finish the setlist. If I breach contract..."
"Look at the sky," Static interrupted.
I looked up.
The Sky-Dome usually projected a perfect, starlit night. But now, the stars were rearranging themselves. They swirled together, turning from white to an angry, burning crimson. The clouds parted, forming a shape.
An eye.
It was colossal, spanning the entire horizon. A giant, unblinking eye made of pure white light. The pupil was a camera lens, zooming in.
[ADMINISTRATOR LOG-IN DETECTED]
[TARGET: IDOL_UNIT_NOVA]
[ACTION: DEBUG/DELETE]
The sheer weight of its gaze forced me to my knees. The air pressure in the arena spiked. Gravity seemed to double. The frozen audience members started to dissolve into binary code, their data being harvested to power the Admin’s manifestation.
"He's purging the RAM to focus on you," Static said urgently, his static-hand grabbing my wrist. His touch felt cold, like licking a 9-volt battery. "Run, battery-brain! Now!"
I looked at the Admin’s eye. It felt cold, clinical. Like a scientist looking at a lab rat that had developed a tumor. I was the tumor.
I looked at the exit tunnel. It led to the backstage, and from there, the ventilation shafts. But running meant losing everything. My rank. My apartment in the High-Bit District. My identity.
"My fans..." I stammered.
"They aren't fans!" Static shouted, his voice cracking with desperation. "They're subroutines designed to keep you docile! Move!"
A beam of red light shot down from the giant eye, vaporizing the drum kit behind me. The sound was deafening—not an explosion, but the screech of a file being corrupted. The floor where the drums used to be was just a black void of null-space.
That decided it.
I ripped off my cumbersome holographic skirt, leaving me in just the combat-ready bodysuit underneath.
"Okay," I said, my voice trembling but my internal monologue screaming in terror. "Let's get the hell out of here."
I grabbed Static’s flickering hand.
"Don't let go," he warned. "Or you'll fall into the gap between frames."
We sprinted toward the edge of the stage. Behind us, the red beam swept forward, deleting the stage inch by inch, erasing the world I had spent an eternity building.
I didn't look back. I jumped into the darkness.
ns216.73.216.10da2
and then Add to home screen.